Let's All Just Sit This April Fools' Day Out

Tuesday, April 01, 2014 - 09:10 AM

Hoaxes on the internet are like grains of sand on a beach.
(Shutterstock)

It’s April Fools' Day, everyone.

In case this is your first one, April Fools' Day is the holiday devoted to hoaxes and lies. If you’re a human person and you read anything today that strains credulity or activates your sense of wonder, you should try to find a second source for it.

Also! If you work for a company that’s concocting a fun fake product or an entertaining lie to tell today, maybe reconsider? After all, it’s incredibly hard to come up with lies that are entertaining, (two fields dedicated to producing entertaining lies — fiction-writing and filmmaking — have high failure rates) so if it’s not your full-time job, you might create one that’s just kind of unfunny and boring.

Finally, if you’re specifically in the business of disseminating the truth, (say, journalism) it might be an decent idea to skip this holiday, which, after all, is devoted to gleefully exchanging the trust or credibility you’ve built up in exchange for bland hijinks.

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Comments [3]

Dave

I wish I could sit out the April Fool's Day hoax industry. But the Boss loves these things, and *his* boss loves these things, so I end up playing amateur Dave Barry and creating a spoof employee newsletter once a year. So far it's been well received, but once in a while we step on a mine we didn't know was there.